Activity · Game Design
Mechanic Mashup
Combine an unusual mechanic and genre, then turn the novelty into one playable rule rather than a page of lore.
What learners need
- The local Game Idea Generator or prepared mechanic-and-genre cards
- Paper prototyping materials or a familiar rapid tool
- A timer
Instructions
- Generate or draw a genre, core mechanic and constraint. Reroll only one field if the combination is genuinely unusable.
- Write one sentence describing what the player repeatedly decides or does.
- Build the cheapest version that another group can try in fifteen minutes.
- Run a short test and record one behaviour that supported or challenged the idea.
- Pitch the revised rule in thirty seconds without explaining story or planned features.
Adapt it by level
Use physical cards and aim for one clear action with an immediate result.
Add one resource or risk that changes how the action is used.
State an intended experience and collect one observation that tests it.
Identify the system's dominant strategy and change one rule to challenge it.
What it develops
- Divergent thinking
- Scope control
- Rule design
- Rapid testing
What you can look for: The group produces a playable rule and uses test behaviour to revise it, rather than judging the idea only from the pitch.
Keep moving
Useful next steps.
Mechanics, dynamics and player experience
Separate what the rules allow, what happens during play and what that tends to make players feel or do.
Turn a vague idea into one testable mechanic
Shrink a large concept into a prototype that can answer one design question this lesson.
Twine for branching prototypes
An open-source tool for making and testing nonlinear interactive stories in the browser or desktop app.